Italy approves plans to drill into supervolcano

The mayor of Naples, Luigi de Magistris, has approved the first stages of a plan to drill into the Campi
Flegrei caldera, a so-called "supervolcano" in the south of
Italy.

The region, which is also known as the Phlegraean
Fields, is a 13-kilometre-wide caldera lying mostly underwater,
which includes 24 different craters and other volcanic edifices,
close to the nearby Mount
Vesuvius (pictured). Among them is the Solfatara crater, which
the Romans believed to be the home of Vulcan, the god of fire. The
region formed over thousands of years of collapse of several
volcanoes in the area, and seismologists believe that any eruption
would have significant repercussions for the local area and the
global climate.

In 2008, to try and find out more about the risks posed by the
geology of the area, a team of experts proposed
drilling a four-kilometre-deep hole into the caldera, but the plans
were vetoed by the mayor at the time, Rosa Russo Iervolino, after
others expressed concerns over the risks of the project.

Benedetto
De Vivo, a geochemist at the University of Naples, told
Science in 2010 that the project carried risks of seismic
activity or even explosions. "Nobody can say how bad this
explosion would be, but it could put at risk some of the
surrounding population," he said.

However, Ulrich Harms of the German Research Centre for Geosciences in
Potsdam countered that "there is no risk to the public," so
long as the drilling is done in a controlled way. He pointed out
that there have been no explosions at the various
multikilometre-depth wells drilled around the world to generate
geothermal energy. He argued that the project is necessary to find
out more: "It's not clear if there is a volcanic risk, but it
cannot be excluded, and this is why it is better to get more of an
idea."

Naples' new mayor, de Magistris, has given the green
light to the drilling of a pilot hole 500 metres deep, which will
be filled with sensors and used to monitor the rising and falling
of the surface above the caldera due to movements of the magma
within. It's possible that the readings could be used to inform
future strategies for generating geothermal energy in the region,
too.

Drilling should start, according to project
co-ordinator Giuseppe De Natale, "within a few
months".